Naggarath's page

Okay I have got to ask this now. And since I don't know any other thread where this question would be more fitting to ask, I'll do it here.

What is the estimated threshold of how much the price of my item is allowed to be off mark before it is auto-rejected? Percentagewise?

Hmm... alright, I'm on wizard or sorcerer.

What I'm thinking about the ost at the moment is tools to prank others with. Thus, I am currently considering a character who can create magic items himself; 83% of all pathfinder pranks are related to the use of sovereign glue. True Story.

Hmm, I don't really like the wizard, but the obvious way to go would be wizard as the class gives me the benefits of being able to create cheaper magic items while being the most varied one spellcasting wise... But then there is, of course, the added expense of buying tons of scrolls. Maybe that would actually end up being exactly as expensive as med having to create my items as a sorcerer.

The rogue as a completely new alternative would be interesting, especially because I could take the master craftsman feat to make wondrous items, which are really the ones I need for some of my plots.... But then again I would like to have a familiar as well, but I'm not suspecting this game to be above ninth level anymore, so I couldn't even pick the familiar advanced rogue talent... Damn

I hate it when I make up a specific character concept, but fail to make the rules bend to my will!

But thanks for the input, it's gotten me a lot closer.

Wizard!

I think that wizards and sorcerers should have gotten together prior to the release of the book and created a merger.

And also; every time I try to play a wizard/witch I am completely destroyed by a sorcerer/spontaneous caster. Every. Time. Granted, I know many people will tell me that I'm just not that good at utilizing the advantages of being a wizard, but I don't think this is the case as the wizard and the witch are the two classes I have had these problems with.

Arh.... I'm never gonna be good at expressing myself in written form apparently, but yeah that would be the obvious way to go. Thanks

Okay, concept: Medium sized humanoid of a magically oriented nature who loves to play practical jokes on everyone; of course less baleful when directed at his friends than at his adversaries.

What should his class(es) be?

Level 10 by the way.

Chris Chapman 60 wrote:

If you think that toys cannot make awesome items, I think that just shows personal bias, and yes you are a judge, but you should still have imagination. There are many ways in which they can be cool, innovative, and awesome. Go watch Daywatch, and tell me the final action scene isn't cool because it uses a "children's" toy. Or that the Joker using explosive jack-in-the-boxes or shocking handshakes wasn't cool.

I think it's poor design and poor editing to disregard something because it isn't something you like.

Let me me quote Captain Pike from last year's Star Trek movie:

"You know your father was Captain of a Starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives. Including your mother's and yours. I dare you to do better."

Or perhaps this:

Do you think you can write an awesome toy wondrous item, despite what I've said above?

Then do it.

Prove.

Me.

Wrong.

I want you to prove me wrong.

I want someone to create something that puts a new twist on something old and revitalizes the entire category. Maybe it's basically spell in a can, like Neil's last leaves of the autumn dryad. Maybe it's an item named for a real-world item, like James Martin's runcible spoon. Maybe it's a toy, like Sean McGowan's cacophonous monkey. Or maybe it's an item you have to swallow, and eventually you barf it back up or *ahem* let it pass, like Benjamin Bruck's steadfast gut-stone.

There are rules in this world. Sometimes those rules are there to protect you, like "don't drive over the speed limit." And there are some people who break those rules to win races, or to get to a burning house in time to save lives.

These topics are advice. They're not hard rules for the contest--those are listed elsewhere, and you shouldn't break or even bend those rules. But all of these topics I've been writing, they're just advice. Can you recognize what *advice* that's been given here can be skirted, or ignored entirely?

Sean, not that I'm, in anyway disputing your claim here, but the fact that you issued this challenge immediately made me attempt to drum up a concept that would actually work.

Didn't. Go. Well.

But! What I did find out though, is that the entire "Toy Magic Item" concept only seems works if it is presented in context to something else. Someone mentioned the joker's jack-in-the-box thing and shocking handshake, expressing how great these items were; they were cool because they were a part of the character's concept, and thus wouldn't necessarily work as a standalone item.

That said, I did think of this one thing though.
The Sentinel Doll.
An exquisitely carved wooden doll, that wealthy noblemen and the like, acquire to guard their treasure vaults as they are enchanted with a permanent alarm spell. The clever idea behind this item being a doll would be the fact that it doesn't necessarily reveal its true nature to any potential burglars, plus, it's portable which allows the owner to relocated his wealth any time needed. Of course this could as well be a crown, or necklace thrown into the pile of gold in the vault, but since this was a challenge to create a toy magic item that has a valid function I of course chose to make it a doll. Estimated price; 2000 gp.

I don't consider this a great creation, but I do think it has a valid application while being a doll (toy). But beyond that, I think it would be really hard to create a truly original toy magic item, because, as earlier mentioned; It's been done to death. Not the exact words, but approriate.

Anyway, as I have already had a lot of other stuff on the drawingboard I won't be exploring any toy items in my more serious entry on this webpagem, but I will try to find an interesting concept for a toy magic item which could be perceived as original and useful on its own merit.

And with that, my interest for this debate is over.

Thanks for all the advice Sean, even though I found them at quite an unfortunate time.

Great suggestions, thank you everyone!

Usually, I listen to a lot of metal oriented music, but I don't really find it that fitting as a mood buffer for my games.

So I tried finding some instrumental music fitting for different scenes, but as it turns out, it's not something that I'm good at.

So if anyone out there has any great suggestions, I'd be thankful to hear them!

I'm especially interested in tracks that would fit the following situations.

Mystery.
Grandoise sights.
Dragon encounter.
Arriving in hell/similarly sinister place.
Everything is chaos!
Mental torment.
One on one combat.
Battles.
Torture.
Relief.
They've brought a cavetroll! (Even though I do own all the music from the lord of the mings already)

Any help is greatly appreciated and reimbursed in the payment of happy thoughts and long distance Reiki.

Okay, I see that response is heavily situated around the combat aspect of the character.

First of all, you shouldn't be concerned with the lack of magic items because we play in a club where we have access to all sorts of previous 3.5 material, and a couple of people insist on being able to use them in pathfinder since they bought all of them. So I have plenty of opportunities to make a character that can make it in combat without a hoard of magic items at his disposal. And besides, should a player ever run around with a lot of magic weapons, they are bound to get suppressed anyway. Spending a lot of time picking out magic items is a huge waste of time in my group. I'd say go for the interesting ones instead of the most powerful ones then.

Anyway. In combat, I wanted Luther to be handy with what his surroundings, so I got permission to use skill tricks. I want him to be pretty strong, but also tricky --> mainly a close-combat guy. He should have a strong personality, so I thought about spending some feats to improve his feinting and intimidation abilities. I'm pretty hooked on the Rake rogue archtype, but I still feel like I want to give him a couple of levels in a prestige class, but I don't now if any exists that will improve his abilities without granting him magical abilities.
Also, I wanted him to be the group's negotiator.

On a final note, we don't play in Golarion currently. The setting we use at the moment is one our GM made, and it's very focused on humans and set in a heavily urbanized medieval environment.

Okay, my character's name i Luther. He is a 42 year old male human. His mother died when he was 10, his father at 12 and generally, his life has pretty much sucked ever since. But, since he didn't really know of a better life, he never complained much. He spent his early years as the local undertaker's help and when the undertaker died, Luther took over the job for the following ten years. Then the burial grounds was closed as the town opened up a new one in another location where there already were an undertaker so Luther loses his job an is pretty quickly put on the street as no one wants to employ because of his age and his lack of experience.

One day Luther realizes how bad his life is and decides to do something about it. He goes on to become an icon of hope to the people living in the streets.

Okay, so what I need to know is, what class/prestige class does Luther have? It's currently going to be a level 10 game and I haven't really had much interest in game statistics lately, so I figured someone might have some ideas concerning his "profession".

It is very important to me that this character functions without magic as I have also said no to start playing with magic items.

Thanks in advance.

Again, someone who puts "roleplaying" on the one side of the equation, and then the typical terms like "character developement", "storylines" and so on on the other.

Note, that roleplaying can be presented in the context of this game..from tactical miniature combat of so called "characters" who are actually mere carriers of statblocks...
to reckless optimization /w CHA-dump that can recite the rules asleep
and so on.

That's all "roleplaying", and some people tend to have fun the one or other way.

The actually worst thing, isn't really a lack of "roleplay", but a lack of tolerance for other styles of gaming

You might be right, but then again; when my players say that they want to be doing the same thing as me (i.e. actually act out my character), then this isn't a question about intolerance of other peoples gaming styles, this is a question about my players not REALLY wanting it enough to try and make it work when they instead juggle a number of different games they never quite get the hang of. We've had so many discussions about this within my gaming group, and everybody always says that they're TRYING to act, but then later on, when they're alone with me they "confess" that they, themselves didn't come through. Then, as an added bonus to my predicament as a GM, everyone starts to complain that the others in the group are ruining their immersion. So the unstoppable force have actually met the immovable object.

By now, I'm realizing that my problem is actually taking place within my own gaming group. I think I'm going to start a new thread when I've tried out my new campaign idea. But so far, thanks for your opinions people; I'll return later on if I need you again.

I can get on board with that (i.e. most of everything you guys have been saying), I guess I should try a refreshed wellspring of patience and see how my next game plays out, my only worry is that I'm never going to be a player in the same kind of game that I write myself. But hopefully I will.

And not to be rude to anyone, cos I do feel that getting this off my chest, along with you responses have helped me; it's 02:35 where I'm at, and though I am on holiday, I really want to sleep so I propose we close the discussion at this point. But really and sincerely, thanks guys; you made me believe that there might still be hope for my dreams to be realized. And I'm no confident that they will. And should they not, I can always bug the hell?(dunno if I can say that) out of my players with my repertoire of mentally dysfunctional sideshow characters in between combat sequences.

And on a final note; the funniest thing is actually that most of the people I play with have begun playing different systems for a while because - they say - they're tired of Pathfinder being too rule fixated, which is funny because I joined one of their games to see what they were actually doing. As it turns out, they were actually doing the same bigoting and debating over rule related arguments, but in settings and worlds that they could relate to better because the base for these worlds was the real world. I find it hard to understand why they want to try and roleplay in so many different games, instead of trying to master one and then move on to something new. And I know it all comes down to the rules and mechanics, because if I suggest we just play pathfinder in another setting with completely different premises from the standard fantasy game, they say no.

But anyway, time for bed, I'll get back to the thread in the morning to see what all you nice people have written.

Goodnight.

Your English is quite good.

Yes, people role-play. A lot of people role-play while tracking the rules to great precision. Many also role-play without caring much about the rules if they feel they get in the way.

Many argue about the rules on the internet. Many argue that the rules are not important on that same internet. Sometimes they argue with each other.

If you are the type who would rather discuss characters and ongoing games where the story takes precedence over the rules, I recommend you stick to the setting-based forums; the ones dedicated to the adventure paths and campaign setting materials.

The Pathfinder RPG general discussion forum can tend to be very rules-focused, because it is setting-neutral. Some people are (vocally) irked by the level of discussion there. I myself value both rules-design and setting discussion, so I tend to frequent both. However, if your feel that rules manipulations are a kind of denigration of the hobby, I do recommend sticking to the setting-content sections of the forum. There are some vibrant, creative discussions there that will not disappoint.

This is the kind of thread title and premise that tends to go downhill quickly. I sincerely hope that we can avoid collectively embarrassing ourselves. Welcome to the forums!

Thank you for the kind words.

I guess your comment on how this thread will shortly see its end couldn't be more spot on, but I was having trouble finding the right place to put the thread, and I only recently noticed the tagline beneath the "General Discussions" headline that said "This forum is for general comments about the Pathfinder RPG and discussing the system with other gamers". The point of course, being that the "SYSTEM" is in focus here.

And just to clarify my updated opinion on the matter at hand, I think you're right that I'm worrying about something I shouldn't worry about.

Besides, some day I won't be living in this area any longer and I may be able to find the kind of experience I'm looking for.

I will gladly accept what has already been replied to my statements. I think the most important part for me to remember is the comment on how people don't need to ask about the roleplaying, since that's what seems the most obvious point to this. It worries me a bit that I didn' come to that conclusion myself though. But my mind is sort of dingy (if I can even use that word this way) and sometimes I hard a hard time seeing the most straightforward and obvious solutions.

What I'm really trying to say, I think, is that I want the people I play with, to change their attitude towards the game. But how that's done, I have no idea. But eventually I'll figure something out, OR, forget about it at one of my "Partays". Thanks folks.

Okay, I don't know if this actually is of any concern to anyone besides myself, but that is also what worries me. Does anyone actually care about the storyline, the character development and the ongoing events that takes place throughout a campaign?

First of all, I realize that I might have chosen the wrong game to be having this particular concern about, cos' frankly, this game and its history have collected a reputation of being focused on the "rules" aspect, more than the storytelling. Thus, people mostly recommend me playing "STORYTELLING" games, but damnit I don't want to.

I LOVE the Pathfinder RPG, and I've been playing its predecessors and it for the last 13 years --> since I was seven years old. Through all this time I have experienced (pun maybe intended, but you will never know) various ups and downs with the game but I no matter how far out the game got and how distasteful and cheesy my gaming groups were, I stuck with it.

But anyway, on to the point; Pathfinder is a large part of my life and it takes up much of my free time - and space. But, I do sometimes see the tendency, on boards and in discussions, that people are focusing excessively on the rules instead of the roleplaying. I don't know if I have just hit a business that I misunderstood. See, I want to play and live the stories of other people and beings in a universe that suits me better than the actual world I happened to exist in. But I just feel that the chance of me ever attaining this goal (i.e. finding like-minded people to accomplish this with) falls farther and farther away from me. But of course, I can always be wrong and there is always the possibility that there are some people out there that live the game in the same way that I want to, but it saddens me to know that these people aren't anywhere close to me. Maybe I've taken this hobby to a point beyond being just a game that is played for fun, but this is how I feel.

I don't really know what this thread is supposed to accomplish other than slightly honing my command of English as it is not my first language, but I am an avid "fan". I guess I just wanted a place to vent my frustrations a little, but it really hurts me that I haven't found others who feel the same way I do. But then again, this game is more than just a hobby to me, it's almost a philosophy. I know that it sounds a bit excessive, but hey, if I wasn't this poetic and caring about this game, I would ruin my point. I simply want to put the "roleplaying" back into my sessions, but as it turns out - at least where I come from - that IS in fact too much to ask.

And maybe it's all in my head - maybe I'm just worrying about something that isn't the case at all, but I sincerely doubt it.

And just to clear the air; I used to be the most insanely rule-focused player of all time till I realized that I wanted something more. AND, since there might be people who are going to tell me that I should just try and go out, and experience life for what it is, live in the moment and discover that the world is a wondrous place indeed, let me say this; I find the world slightly tolerable at best. I know that makes me a dark and pitiful person with a grim outlook, but when it comes right down to it; aren't people the most happy when they're doing what they love? Well I love Pathfinder, parties, writing and drawing, but I don't have the opportunity to be engaged in these passions at all times.

Alright, maybe it got a slight bit existential there and perhaps this qualifies this thread for a moving to another category, but that fits me fine.

All in all, just a general concern lodged within the mind of a fan that allows his life to revolve around a hobby.

- Last note; by now, my head is laughing loudly at myself for putting this on the board, but then again, responses will probably be entertaining at the least. But seriously, I haven't got a clue as to what this is supposed to do for me. I live in Denmark, and I've checked around the block - not many Pathfinder enthusiast, not even rule-fixated ones. But thanks for the game; I hope to find the "utopic" participants that I'm looking for. And if nothing else takes, I can always keep writing my stories that focus on the worlds imaginable through the pathfinder experience. Good day to all, and seriously thanks for the game.

I think you might want to bump it up to CR 20... I mean, it is pretty powerful, but then again, it's a tough call cos at that level players are really powerful. But, when considering it is such a powerful being that gains extra actions it is probably best served as a CR 20 creature. The only thing I can find in it's statistics that speak against it being a CR 20 creature is its saving throws which are pretty low when considering the possibility of casting death effect on it.

But anyway, I like the concept and I think it's durable!

Thanks a lot Paraxis! That really helped; it's just the sort of thing I'm looking for.

So, I'm currently working on three base classes which are supposed to be the signature classes for my own campaign setting.

The three are as follows.

The Dread Knight - An anti-paladin who isn't just a "negative" version of the ordinary paladin. This class is mainly intended for use as evil NPC's working for the bad guys. The features of the class include crowd control in melee combat, counter channeling clerics' and paladins' channeling ability and frontline combat prowess. By the way, this is not a reaction to the pathfinder anti-paladin found in the advanced players guide; I started writing it about four months before they released the book.

The Tinker - A utility class that dabbles in creating constructs, energy weapons, blowing stuff up, setting traps & finding traps, grafting characters with bio-engineering upgrades and so on.

The Mystic - An all-round caster who draws power from both the divine and arcane at the same time. This is the class I'm currently going over because I can't get the mechanics right.

Alright then, my problem here is that I'm already fixed on what I want all these classes to do, but my little troublemaker (i.e. the Mystic) is causing me some distress as I can't seem to figure out its mechanics in a viable way.

The Mystic.
Spell Mantles
See, what I want the Mystic to do is to have the ability to "assume" spell mantles, which I basically wanted to grant the Mystic access to a small array of spells that she then would be able to utilize much like a normal caster but with a few exceptions. First of all, I don't want to make them actual caster, so spells of spell levels beyond 6th level is almost out of the question. Then, I need a way of putting together these spell mantles so they don't become too powerful too fast (I don't know if I should make different levels of spell mantles or if I should just include all spell levels, and then make the Mystic's class level determine when she is able to cast the higher level spells).
I don't want this class to become one of those classes that basically does the same thing as another class, but in a more complicated way so I'm already considering doing something completely different.
What I sort of wanted for this ability was for it to be similar to the Binder's (Tome of Magic, WotC) vestiges or the Master of Masks' (Complete Scoundrel, WotC) masks in the way that they grant an array of powers (in this case mostly spells) and some small boosts to different character features.

On the side of the spell mantle ability I also wanted to give the Mystic a "make-your-pick" class feature called Spell Tricks, because I want it to be more of a peculiar class than a directly focused class.

But anyways, my main concern lies with the Spell Mantle class feature. So if anyone has any ideas that could help me make it functional and realistic when compared to other casters' spell casting, please post them.

-Thanks in advance.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but here goes nothing.
As far as actual playtest, the summoner's eidolon is extremely powerful at low levels.

I made a halfling summoner who had an eidolon with a basic amount of hit points of 26. That's way too much at 1st level, plus with the additional summonings the summoner is able to pretty much beat anyone at low levels. As for high levels, I haven't tried out the summoner's abilities. But at 1st level my GM had to boost our generel encounter CR by +2/+3 because of my summoner's eidolon.

Just to put into perspective, the features of the summoner, it brings back memories of the times when necromancers were able to run around with two giant undead monstrosities with (together) double the HD of the necromancer. The necromancer never had any problems accomplishing any task because of his minions. This is what is gonna happen with the summoner if some moderation of the eidolon doesn't take place. And for those who'll point to the animal companion of the druid; don't I don't think those are balanced either. The Summoner and the Druid are by far the classes with the greatest potential for destruction which is very dangerous at low levels, but as everyone knows; sheer force and raw strength isn't enough at high levels.

I'd consider giving the eidolon only 1 HD at 1st level, otherwise it's way too powerful. And it is way too powerful even if the player isn't looking to powerplay. And lastly, a creature with four claw attacks at 1st level (each one at -2, which comes up to +5 with each due to strength and BAB) is way too powerful ever to have as a pet. And for those who'll say that it isn't that powerful just because it gets sent away if it reaches 0 hit points, let me say; it doesn't matter. It wouldn't matter if it was your powerful low level fighter, hence it doesn't matter if the eidolon goes away for a while; you can't ressurect them anyways. And allowing the eidolon to retreat only to return later only makes it that much more powerful.

So that's my only point of critique, the eidolon is way too powerful, but mostly at low levels. Character's should be able to find a way to handle it at higher levels.

As for the witch; nothing new (really new) is under the sky. The witch doesn't need balancing it seems, oh, except for the fact that they can actually heal with arcane magic. I don't know if people are just gloating over this or what they're doing, but seriously, granting an arcane caster the ability to heal (as with the bard) is totally broken. I conjured up the first three builds to make the witch an unstoppable character based solely upon it's spell list. I'd say remove all healing spells from the witch's spell list and then add some more transformation spells.

Well, that's just my view, let's make way for other peoples opinions...

Just giving a serious heads up on the eidolon because it's way too powerful (think I said that too many times now).

I'm currently planning a new game which is going to start out somewhere between level 12 to 14 and whith the release of the pathfinder bestiary, I'm sure that my player will want to play as some of the new "Monsters" (meaning that I only let people play creatures that are humanoid in appearance). My question is this; for people who have the bestiary, would you allow your player to play outsiders if their CR is low enough for the current party level at the beginning of the game?

My current dilemma is this; if, I for example let one of my players participate in the game as a Rakshasa, would it be too powerful in comparance to a humanoid with CR 10, or would you think it okay to let the player use the Rakshasa.

Normally I would let anyone play any humanoid looking creature from the books as long as they fullfil the requirements (the creature being of an applicable CR for the current game) along with bringing me a background story that justifies his choice of race.

It should be said that depending on the mood of my players, we either play in good/neutral parties or in evil parties, just saying since people might be confused about me mentioning the Rakshasa in question.

To any replies that might answer my question, I thank you in advance.